Tessa has just months to live. Fighting back against hospital visits, endless tests, drugs with excruciating side-effects, Tessa compiles a list. It’s her To Do Before I Die list. And number one is Sex. Released from the constraints of ‘normal’ life, Tessa tastes new experiences to make her feel alive while her failing body struggles to keep up. Tessa’s feelings, her relationships with her father and brother, her estranged mother, her best friend, and her new boyfriend, all are painfully crystallised in the precious weeks before Tessa’s time finally runs out.

Tessa who is 16 years old was diagnosed with Leukemia when she was 12 years old. She finds out that her diagnoses is terminal & only has a few months left to live, which she then realizes that she needs to make the best of the time she has left. She then creates a to-do list before she dies. She knows well she can't be like normal girls her age and experience love, so she settles for sex which is the first thing on her list.

She goes through all these experiences from drugs--to crime, which then leads to a very heartbreaking ending. Through out the story, it was very touching and poignant. The well-written literature made this story unforgettable.

What i really loved about this novel was how strong the characters were, the love story, and the importance of life itself. Also how realistic this story is.

Tessa's character is so astounding, that i wanted her to live as much as she did. I cried about 5 times during this book. Throughout the book, it was slowly breaking my heart, page after page, and when i got to the end, it just shattered.

I would have to say this was the most touching, poignant, heartbreaking books I've ever read. This is a book you definitely SHOULD read & add to your bookshelf. It's one of those books that you don't want to put down, or take a break from reading!

When her favorite patient at a private mental hospital passes away, psychology student Ree Hutchins mourns the elderly woman's death. But more unsettling is her growing suspicion that something unnatural is shadowing her.

Amateur ghost hunter Hayden Priest believes Ree is being haunted. Even Amelia Gray, known in Charleston as The Graveyard Queen, senses a gathering darkness. Driven by a force she doesn't understand, Ree is compelled to uncover an old secret and put abandoned souls to rest—before she is locked away forever....

An ebook exclusive prequel to The Graveyard Queen series.

Ree is currently a student at a grad school in Emerson and is also a volunteer at a mental hospital. She had a favorite patient named Violet, who then passes away of old age. She overhears a conversation that reveals that there is a secret lingering within the facility, which relates to the paranormal experiences she encounters.

This piece of literature was a decently written short story. I didn't have a grip on this book for the first couple chapters, but after a while, i got absorbed into it by the suspense this story was giving off. I'm a sucker for romance stories, and this one had a little spice into it! What i didn't like about this book was that it was very brief of the character Amelia, although i grew interest in Ree.

Overall, i think the story was very good & well written. The Abandoned is a eBook prequel to The Graveyard queen series, which i'm sooo exited for :)

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

For my first post & for the time being until i post a book review; i will share my Bookshelf that i've recently read, along with my rating of the book. :)

Flowers for Algernon By Daniel Keyes

In this classic story that inspired the hit movie by the same name. Charlie Gordon, a retarded adult who cleans floors and toilets, becomes a genius through an experimental operation.

My Rating:

Before i Die By Jenny Downham

Tessa has just months to live. Fighting back against hospital visits, endless tests, drugs with excruciating side-effects, Tessa compiles a list. It’s her To Do Before I Die list. And number one is Sex. Released from the constraints of ‘normal’ life, Tessa tastes new experiences to make her feel alive while her failing body struggles to keep up. Tessa’s feelings, her relationships with her father and brother, her estranged mother, her best friend, and her new boyfriend, all are painfully crystallised in the precious weeks before Tessa’s time finally runs out.

My Rating:

The Crucible By Arthur Miller

Based on historical people and real events, Arthur Miller's play uses the destructive power of socially sanctioned violence unleashed by the rumors of witchcraft as a powerful parable about McCarthyism.

My Rating:

Stargirl By Jerry Spinelli

Stargirl. From the day she arrives at quiet Mica High in a burst of color and sound, the hallways hum with the murmur of “Stargirl, Stargirl.” She captures Leo Borlock’s heart with just one smile. She sparks a school-spirit revolution with just one cheer. The students of Mica High are enchanted. At first.

My Rating:

To Kill a Mockingbird By Harper Lee

The unforgettable novel of a childhood in a sleepy Southern town and the crisis of conscience that rocked it, To Kill A Mockingbird became both an instant bestseller and a critical success when it was first published in 1960. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was later made into an Academy Award-winning film, also a classic.

Compassionate, dramatic, and deeply moving, To Kill A Mockingbird takes readers to the roots of human behavior - to innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, humor and pathos. Now with over 18 million copies in print and translated into forty languages, this regional story by a young Alabama woman claims universal appeal. Harper Lee always considered her book to be a simple love story. Today it is regarded as a masterpiece of American literature.